Why are shops still selling these? Literally the only time I’ve ever seen a disposable BBQ being used is in the middle of field in the height of summer.

I expect I’m going to get flamed for this but, they’re a lifeline for vegetarians at a barbecue. The alternatives are salad, going hungry whilst everyone else eats, or having their dinner covered in pig grease.

Disposable barbecues may well also be used by antisocial dickheads but, well, what isn’t? I for one appreciate it when someone’s given at least a passing consideration to the tree-huggers.

The alternatives are …

Either leaving part of the BBQ meat free for the vegetarians or having a second smaller one on the go, even if you’ve got to bring it yourself. Most ‘tree-huggers’ I know aren’t mega keen on disposable stuff.

“They have always gone out with various neighbours in the evening over the past few years wiith watering cans plus bottles of water and put out still smoldering bbqs and home made fires. I guess they missed this one.”

Next time they should head out in the afternoon with fire extinguishers and a pack of dogs, (to eat the sausages of course).

I expect I’m going to get flamed for this but, they’re a lifeline for vegetarians at a barbecue. The alternatives are salad, going hungry whilst everyone else eats, or having their dinner covered in pig grease.

No flaming necessary, though I have a second grill for the non-meat eating types for the Weber kettle. No waste and no cross-contamination though no cast iron central insert for the veggies to sear things.

I am actually really struggling lately with pent up anger from thoughtless people.
I don’t know if it’s turning 49 that’s made it worse or what, but virtually every time I go out of the house now there is some bit of moron-wake I have to witness that gets my anger rising and I can’t get it out of my head for ages. (Litter is in the top spot)
It’s a real problem for me. I don’t know how to ignore it. My gf called me a grumpy old man this morning after a walk in the local woods where I saw an entire McDonald’s bag had been hoiked out of a car window.

I agree with Cougar in that disposable bbqs are great for us veggies, but I still think they need banning right now because fundamentally…

Either leaving part of the BBQ meat free for the vegetarians

Sure. Experience would suggest that nothing could possibly go wrong with this approach.

or having a second smaller one on the go

“Disposable barbecues are evil therefore I demand that you buy a second real one!” Then in the next breath, someone will be complaining about preachy vegans.

even if you’ve got to bring it yourself.

Why on earth would I own a barbecue when I’m vegetarian? For the once every two years where someone I know has a barbecue, it’s not just considered ‘not weird’ but actually expected that I turn up with a full cookset? Really?

Most ‘tree-huggers’ I know aren’t mega keen on disposable stuff.

🤷‍♂️ what do all your masses of vegetarian friends do when invited to barbecues do, then? Do they rock up with their own portable Weber, or do they bring a packed lunch? Of course, wrapping sandwiches might be an issue…

I have a second grill for the non-meat eating types for the Weber kettle. No waste and no cross-contamination

Thank you.

Most of our BBQ are completely Vegi now… so much good stuff you can throw on the flames. BBQ aren’t just for us meat eaters. We have a dishwasherable stainless steel cooking tray… recommended for clean cooking every time. Anyway, if we have a vegi guest we don’t cook any meat. Simpler that way, and results in more variety in our own diets in the summer. Win, win.

Easy there Tiger Cougar!

I’m vegetarian. I own a small barbeque. Why on earth wouldn’t I? I might want to have a BBQ in my garden. Sometimes I take it to friend’s houses if we’re having a BBQ. If they’re coming to mine and want to eat meat, they bring one. Otherwise, my friends know I don’t eat meat when they invite me. Sometimes they own a second BBQ they put out. Sometimes they leave half the grill free, or cook veggie stuff first. Seems to work fine and no-one minds because we’re all friends.

Just seems better to spend a few more quid on a BBQ that will last years than a disposable one.

PS. I’ve got a box for my sandwiches. No need to wrap them. 😉

so much good stuff you can throw on the flames.

Yes was introduced to barbecued banana recently. If you have a sweet tooth like me…. Cut a slit down the length of the bananas and stuff a few chocolate drops inside each. Hoik onto BBQ for errrm 10 minutes at a guess (at the end when not at full heat). Serve with icecream, and some rich brown coloured alcohol I can’t remember what. Enjoy!

corn on the cob on the barbecue ruins any boiled in water version.

My gf called me a grumpy old man this morning

Think she’s nailed it. One needs to be careful of this as one gets older. Yes, there are dicks everywhere doing things that you don’t like. But we live on a crowded little island so it’s either bugger off and live in Alaska, or learn some zen acceptance tactics and count ones blessings.

Whenever I get a bit down I try to remind myself that I live in a time of prosperity, in a wealthy nation, no plagues, no war, plentiful food, psychedelic drugs a click away, little crime, no having to work all the damn time or walk miles to get water out of a well, hot girls wandering around in next to nothing, summer, sun, bbq’s…

As always,it’s not the object that’s the real problem, it’s idiot users – see also cars, bikes, scooters….

The disposable BBQ is the symptom, not the cause. We keep addressing symptoms, not causes.

Just as an aside, you really have to be a special kind of stupid to accidentaly start a wild fire with a disposable, I mean, they don’t burn for long anyway, so as long as you put them on a suitable surface, and chuck a bit of water/pop on it when youre done for good measure… youd have to be really really reckless to cause a problem.

No, the problem is the item. Just like polystyrene cups and fast food containers… when you’ve had years of evidence about how poorly people use them… you have to control the item rather than just wishing people were better. The frequency and extent of fires caused by disposal BBQ (mis)use has brought us to a point where an outright ban can no longer be avoided (sadly) unless we want to see more of the same.

Just because the fire looks “out” or the BBQ  has been  placed on top of something doesn’t mean the risk from fire has gone. seen it so many times reignition of fire due to zombie fire or creep fire.  The media whip it up into frenzy local neds setting fires again or fire service not fully extinguishing the original fire. We’ve seen deep seated fires 2m below ground level ended up getting JCB in to dig a firebreak trench and flooded that .

Yep, disposable BBQs need to go, ludicrous that they are still around in 2022 given the damage they cause & the single-use aspect. Also, they’re atrocious for cooking on anyway!

remind myself that I live in a time of prosperity, in a wealthy nation, no plagues, no war,

Yes indeed! Unfortunately I keep thinking about medieval torture devices while practising yoga, which kinda ruins it a bit!

I’m vegetarian. I own a small barbeque. Why on earth wouldn’t I?

You have a cooker?

I don’t know, I thought the whole point of a barbecue was something about coal fired hickory smoked char grilled whatever mystery meat, the Yanks get this right whereas here in the UK we seem to have a weird interpretation of it which is blood and charcoal. Sounds less like food and more like a Metallica album cover. I don’t really ‘get’ the vegetarian equivalence here.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not That Vegetarian, I’ve said this on STW on many occasions previously. I really don’t want to be, I’ll happily go get a bag of chips from round the corner rather than make a fuss. My point in its entirety was that single-use BBQs serve a purpose here. It’s far preferable to me than trying to explain to lovely, well-meaning people that a corner of a lard-soaked grill doesn’t really appeal.

PS. I’ve got a box for my sandwiches. No need to wrap them. 😉

Don’t they fall apart?

As always,it’s not the object that’s the real problem, it’s idiot users – see also cars, bikes, scooters….

The disposable BBQ is the symptom, not the cause. We keep addressing symptoms, not causes.

Nail, head.

As always,it’s not the object that’s the real problem, it’s idiot users – see also cars, bikes, scooters….AK47s, combat knives, nun-chucks 😉

The disposable BBQ is the symptom, not the cause. We keep addressing symptoms, not causes.

Isn’t that what people opposing gun laws often say? 😉

People are always being stupid. Sometimes it’s useful to have legislation that takes care of that to some extent. Quicker at least.

They’ve been around years and cause a lot of problems. We should become less familiar with the term ‘disposable’.
There are loads of cute little bbqs you can get now. On legs, good for bbq after bbq and safer. Just expensive enough so that perhaps idiots don’t leave them burning and walk off.
Use them, take them home, clean, reuse.

in the UK we seem to have a weird interpretation of it which is blood and charcoal.

only the thickos (and teenagers who haven’t learnt to cook yet!) And you have to ignore their opinions. Do you also think an Argos full-suss BSO is a perfectly acceptable bicycle? 😀
To everybody else “having a bbq” really just means cooking a meal outside (probably secondary to socialising!)

There are loads of cute little bbqs you can get now. On legs, good for bbq after bbq and safer.

exactly, look on Go Outdoors, cheapest is £8! £20-30 for something that actually looks pretty reasonable, or £90 for something which will last a lifetime. No need for disposables at all.

my display resolution

People are always being stupid. Sometimes it’s useful to have legislation that takes care of that to some extent. Quicker at least.

Didn’t have this problem when we had the death penalty. Just saying.

Were disposable BBQs invented when we had the death penalty?
Im going with a strong no on this.

Yeah, I was kind of on the fence about this, but then the fence burned down!

If you really want a barbie, and cater for vegie/vegan then get one with multiple grills or just a cheap 2nd tripod type BBQ.

I think I have to agree that the £5.99 disposables available at every petrol station and supermarket are just encouraging the problem, as in casual, thoughtless, spur of the moment use.

And they are shit anyway.

When we have veggie friends round for a BBQ we all eat veggie.

I think I have to agree that the £5.99 disposables available

Way cheaper than that usually I think. More like £3 odd I think.

Even when they’re not causing fires they’re causing litter. Disposable BBQs and litter in the countryside are just an obvious manifestation of dickheads cos it’s easier not to take something home that no longer has any value.

Isn’t that what people opposing gun laws often say? 😉

People are always being stupid. Sometimes it’s useful to have legislation that takes care of that to some extent. Quicker at least.

Sure. So control sales rather than banning things outright. Mate of mine is a clay pigeon shooter. My boss lives in the corner of nowhere and routinely hunts dinner. I don’t think either of them are overly murdery.

It’s coming up to the 5th of November. I love love love fireworks, but I’d cheerfully see the sale of them to the general public require a licence. I looked into getting an explosives licence myself at one point (model rocketry), it’s not a difficult thing to obtain and it’d dissuade random idiots from two months of carpet-bombing the area.

When we have veggie friends round for a BBQ we all eat veggie.

Lovely that everyone buys into it but, I’d hate that. I would feel monumentally guilty. I’d rather sit in a corner with a can of Pringles.

I love love love fireworks, but I’d cheerfully see the sale of them to the general public require a licence

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-61989897

Lovely that everyone buys into it but, I’d hate that. I would feel monumentally guilty. I’d rather sit in a corner with a can of Pringles.

It’s already been alluded to above but a BBQ is more about sitting outside cooking and eating than about what exactly is being eaten. It is no major loss to skip meat for one meal. There are some great veggie options. Some folk just need their eyes opened a bit.

I think the whole meat V’s veggie/vegan thing in refernence to BBQ is a bit of a misnomner.

Good food is good food. The problem here is **** being irresponsible with things that can set fire to other things.

We can’t elimminate that, but at least we can stop a bunch of teenagers buying disposables, on a whim whilst they are loading up on energy drinks in thier Corsa at the petrol station.

If they have to put some thought into it and spend £30 on a cheap BBQ and another tenner on charcoal, it might just stave off a lot of the issues we currently have.

And two people arrested for throwing a lit disposable BBQ into woodland…
44 year olds, not dumb kids. Actual adults who very much know exactly the impact it will have.
World of **** we’re living in

Completely ban them.
The worst thing about any BBQ’d food is the invariable burning.
Solution? Wrap all food in foil parcels – separation, sealed flavour, no unwanted burning.
Eveybody’s happy – particularly the foil manufacturers.
Burnt food – frequently wrongly described as char-grilled – isn’t fit for human consumption; for neanderthals, possibly.

that gets my anger rising and I can’t get it out of my head for ages. (Litter is in the top spot)

We’ve started to litter pick our local park on every dog walk. It seems to engender an awareness in some that the place is valued as our pickings are becoming more sparse as the weeks progress. Be the change you want to see, as a wiser man than me once said.

Even when they’re not causing fires they’re causing litter. Disposable BBQs and litter in the countryside are just an obvious manifestation of dickheads cos it’s easier not to take something home that no longer has any value.

My local park earlier this week complete with folding chair

Today at local beauty spot

We’ve started to litter pick our local park on every dog walk. It seems to engender an awareness in some that the place is valued as our pickings are becoming more sparse as the weeks progress. Be the change you want to see, as a wiser man than me once said.

@sandwich
I started a thread about doggo litter picking – don’t know if you’ve seen it?

Spring clean

RNP, your efforts could and should be an examplar.
Sandwich – wise words well worth wepeating; sorry, couldn’t resist the extended alliteration. Both you and he much wiser than me.

RNP – where are you, the last time I saw grass that colour was on the lawn of Windsor Castle and the pitch at Stamford Bridge